AP English Literature & Composition
“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one becomes master.”
-Ernest Hemingway
Jeff Mercado, Instructor
e-mail address:
Tutoring: by appointment only
Course Description
The Advanced Placement Literature and Composition course is designed to teach high school students to thoroughly analyze and emulate works of “literary merit” at the college level through extensive reading, writing, and discussion-based initiatives. As such, we will talk every day about some vital aspect of literature as it relates to writing, including: rhetorical devices, disposition or structure, and style (diction, syntax, figurative language, mechanics). The kinds of writings in this course are varied but include writing to understand, writing to explain, and writing to evaluate. All critical writing asks that you evaluate the effectiveness of a literary piece, but to be an effective evaluator, one must understand and explain. The essence of literary study is the combination of these three approaches to writing.
This class will function as a true workshop; therefore, you will write a good deal, and you will revise certain pieces of your writing into polished final drafts. You will also produce a final writing portfolio. In the process of these workshops, you will be exposed to your conscious choice of diction and the appropriate use of words, your ability to create varied and effective syntactic structures, your capacity for coherence and illustrative details, and, overall, your ability to combine rhetorical processes into an effective whole. Our exploration of chosen literary works will serve to develop these competencies in various modes of writing. What I expect most of all from our class is hard work and careful reading on the part of the individual and ready, mature, insightful discussion on the part of the class.
SUPPLIES
v Three-ring binder with pockets
v Composition Book (3-pack if offered)
v Black and blue pens, revision pens (unique colors), highlighters
v Glue stick/double-sided tape
v Sticky notes
v Flash drive!!!
READING: The most important requirement for this course is that students read every assignment and that they read it with care and timeliness. Students unused to literature courses will need to plan time in their schedule for more reading than most courses require. Poetry, though usually not long, is dense and complicated and should always be read multiple times. Time management will be critical if you are to exercise a balance in terms of the reading expectations. There are a variety of ways that your reading will be assessed, such as through short quizzes, group exercises, discussions, formal and informal writings, etc.
Specific objectives:
1. Read every assignment closely, working toward mastery of challenging literary works.
2. Strive for intellectual engagement and creative insight into the text.
3. Read closely for detail, recognizing the writer’s literary devices and structures.
4. Respond to your reading with thoughtful inquiry.
5. Participate effectively in group discussions with emphasis on listening and critical and reflective thinking.
6. Use articulate, insightful responses during group discussion.
7. Explore and accept classmates’ alternative interpretations of texts.
WRITING: Writing assignments will focus on the critical analysis of literature and will include expository, analytical, and argumentative essays. Writing is mostly an incomplete art, one that can always be improved. To that end, we will focus greatly on the writing process and peer revision to help you improve your papers. In AP English IV, emphasis will be placed on refining and polishing your writing with attention to a more mature usage of diction, syntax, tone in order to address specific and general audiences and to achieve sophisticated style. By this point in your studies, all major errors in grammar, punctuation, and mechanics should have disappeared. To assess your critical analysis essays, rubrics similar to those suggested by College Board and other master AP teachers will be used. In addition to literary analysis, you will also have creative writing assignments to help you develop your own voice and learn the writing process from a personal level. Hopefully, you will increase your versatility as an effective writer.
Specific objectives:
1. Use the writing process as a tool for reflection, exploration, learning, problem solving, and personal growth.
2. Apply the correct conventions of usage and the mechanics of written English.
3. Use rhetorical methods effectively, including a specific, controlling tone.
4. Develop versatility as a writer by composing papers on a variety of topics.
5. Use different modes of expression and use voice appropriate to audience and purpose.
6. Organize ideas and use transitions, repetition, and emphasis to ensure coherence, logical progression, and clarity.
7. Use textual support for your essay’s position and ideas.
8. Use varied sentence structure, organization, and rhetorical devices appropriate for specific writing.
9. Employ precise language and higher-level vocabulary to communicate ideas clearly and concisely.
10. Using a designated rubric, evaluate your own writing as well as other class members’ writing.
11. When producing formal analysis papers, use the MLA format.
ASSIGNMENTS
Daily Exercises – Each day, we will work in groups to read, discuss, analyze, revise, respond, and plan. You will be held accountable for each exercise as part of an “Assignment” grade, both individually and collectively.
Informal Writings – Free response assignments allow you to explore the literature we are reading without the weight of a major grade bearing down upon you. It is the expectation that you will write daily in response to our readings and analyses as they are assigned. Although these responses are “free,” please do not interpret that to mean “incomplete.” A “free response” merely gives you creative leverage in how you respond to a work of literature, not necessarily the length. Poetry responses will be completed each week as final drafts. Poetry selections have been collected into five packets, or groups, each posted on my website. By the day of the AP Literature exam, each student will have closely read, examined, and analyzed at least twenty-eight poems and communicated their understanding of how the poem “works” in an essay through explication or analysis.
Timed Exercises – You will be asked to respond to a piece of literature through a timed exercise in multiple-choice and/or essay format. The purpose of these “drills” is to prepare you for the AP Literature and Composition exam in May. You will find that these timed exercises will significantly raise your comfort level as the May exam date approaches.
Quizzes – Expect a quiz periodically. The contents of each quiz will naturally vary based on the genre and the author and the time period. Most quizzes will be designed according to specific elements of the genre discussed in class.
College Essays and the North Carolina Graduation Project (NCGP)
Very soon, you will be faced with the task of writing college essays for the various institutions to which you apply. This type of writing differs in nature from much of the writing we will be doing for this class; therefore, a portion of time will be spent in preparing you to identify the purpose of the essay, to choose an appropriate topic, and to compose the essay. In addition, all seniors are required to complete the product/oral presentation portion of the NCGP. Class time, albeit limited, will be devoted to your preparation of this component of the project in order to assure student success in completing this requirement. As you may already know, this project will factor into your course grade to some degree. Information including important deadlines and scoring information will be communicated as soon it is disseminated from centrally from CMS and will become instantly available on my website.
Grading Scale
Major Essays, Projects, and Tests = 70%
Daily Initiatives (daily exercises, informal/timed exercises, participation) = 15%
Quizzes = 15%
*Note: The North Carolina Graduation Project will factor into your overall course grade. The 36-week course averages your NCGP composite score as 25% of your fourth quarter average.
ABSENCES AND MAKE-UP WORK
· Avoid absences if at all possible. A college course typically makes few allowances for absences. After breaching these guidelines, the grade of the student is lowered or the student receives a failing grade.
· I will follow department policy and district rules regarding timelines for submitting make-up work due to absences. See your CMS Handbook.
· Arrangements to complete missed work are your responsibility! Students who miss a quiz or a test will be given a grade of zero on the day of the absence until the quiz or test is completed in timely accordance with CMS policies.
· Classroom discussions revolve around the sharing of thoughts about the author’s writing techniques, as well as information concerning the overall theme and essence of selected works. This process involves the give and take of other students’ points of view and may aid you greatly in diversifying your perspective and deeper understanding. You will miss these shared insights if you are not in class.
· A participation test grade score of 100% will be given to students who have attended class each day in the quarter and actively contribute to class discussions.
COURSE OUTLINE
Required Texts:
Thomas Arp, Greg Johnson. Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, & Sense. 10th Ed. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009
*Note: A number of supplementary texts, handouts, and online resources will be required.
* Additional Note: Dates and texts are subject to change given time constraints.
PRELIMINARIES: Introduction to Course (2 weeks)
· Expectations for Summer Reading / Major Works Data Sheets
· AP Examination Diagnostic
Novel Study
· Reading and Discussion Objectives: Our study of the three genres, which follow, exhaust every minute of our first three quarters. Generally, the fourth quarter is used primarily for novel review and multiple-choice practice. Novels, therefore, are assigned as independent studies. Each novel will be introduced in class and accompanied by a study guide, an annotation guide, and a Major Works Data Sheet, individually crafted for each novel. These guides and templates will be posted to my website and should be completed by the test date. Students will also be required to research, print, and annotate two critical reviews of the literature from a legitimate scholarly source (examples will be provided). The major assessment piece for each novel will be a timed essay, written in class. These essays will be scored according to a rubric, designed specifically to address the College Board expectations of high-level essays. The papers, after they have been scored, will serve as the first draft of a process paper. During the class after the exam, we will hold a seminar to discuss important themes, issues, and critiques of the novel vital to increasing your understanding while expanding and challenging your perspective. Your discussion may yield valuable insights, which can be used in subsequent drafts.
· Writing Objectives: Compose expository, analytical essays and analytical, argumentative essays in response to former published free response prompts, prompts assimilated in class, and prompts I create for you. Practice timed writing. Familiarize yourself with the rigor of the AP essay test and testing environment. Build confidence and pride in your ability to compose a college-level essay. Create a portfolio of drafts, which clearly evidence your ability to identify and correct weaknesses while exhibiting your aptitude for mature and sophisticated composition and for effectively analyzing complicated and great literary works. * Your dedication to these expectations could be rewarded with college credit, which in many cases acts as a partial scholarship worth thousands of dollars. In the end, you stand to gain the most valuable commodity in the global market today – the ability to write well.
· Unit Specifics: The following literatures have been carefully selected from the approved AP Literature and Composition list. Following the titles are the anticipated test dates.
v Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad Sept. 27
v The Awakening – Kate Chopin Oct. 30
v Macbeth – William Shakespeare Nov. 26
v The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway Jan. 3
v One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel García Márquez Feb. 4
v Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky Mar. 7
v Beloved – Toni Morrison Apr. 10
Short Fiction (9 weeks)
· Reading and Discussion Objectives: Define the short story, its characteristics and its elements. Analyze, critique, evaluate and judge the author’s style and use of literary techniques to determine their overall impact and meaning and value.
· Writing objectives: Work through the writing process very carefully; use an AP prompt to draft, revise, and polish first analytical essay. Use apt textual references, precise language and diction, varied sentence structure, coherence and clarity. Incorporate appropriate, specific textual references to describe the writer’s use of literary techniques and their effects and express ideas clearly. Compose analytical responses within varying time limitations (Here, we will begin to prepare for the AP examination by practicing the composition of parts of an essay, introductory and body paragraphs, within a time frame, and the whole essay, in response to the first novels).
In the final unit of short fiction study, where we examine the works of Flannery O’Connor, students will compose an analytical, argumentative essay, using textual details to examine how race and class define the attitudes of the characters, drive the plot, and provide the framework for O’Connor’s judgment of the social climate in her day.
* Consider the following lists as a dynamic. It is unrealistic to think that a James Joyce or William Faulkner can be limited by one category. We will certainly use these stories as headliners to specific elements, but we will be rereading and referencing many of these texts throughout the unit in addition to examining several powerful excerpts from essays and novels
Unit Specifics
v Unit One: An Introduction to the Short Story – What Art is This?
· “A & P” by John Updike
· “Hunters in the Snow” by Tobias Wolff
v Unit Two: Plot and Structure– One Hundred Quilts
· “The Swimmer” by John Cheever
· “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner
· “How I Met My Husband” by Alice Munro
v Unit Three: Setting – Evolution, Adam and Eve, the Big Bang, and Genesis